ESTEVAN - The Estevan Bible Camp (EBC) has had a full slate of day, evening and overnight camps once again this season.
It started with a squirt day camp and evening teen camp from July 11-13. The squirt overnight camp ran from July 14-16. After a break, a beginner’s camp was held July 18.
Junior camp was July 19-22 and teen camp will wrap up the season from July 25-29.
EBC director Shawn Bissonnette said it has been a good start to the season, as they have a very good group of team members and some strong cabin leaders to help with running the camp.
“We have pretty much a perfect team,” said Bissonnette. “We have about 20 cabin leaders, split in half, boys and girls, to help us out.”
The day camps have averaged about 35 kids. Approximately 30 campers attended the squirt camp. The registrations for the remaining camp were impressive, too.
Beginner camp had roughly 30, the junior gathering was to have 40, while the teen camp was at around 20, which he said is really good.
Bissonnette noted the EBC was one of the few Bible camps in the province to still be operating in 2020 because of its proximity to Estevan, so they were “packed” that year with campers. Pretty much every camp was full. The high numbers continued in 2021.
They have fewer campers this year, but the numbers are still in line with what they had before the pandemic.
A typical day at EBC this year will include meals, skills, chapel services, activities such as swimming or a water fight, and games such as ultimate Frisbee or Capture the Flag. They also have speakers who will share their faith.
“The kids are always happy to come out, try new things, hang out with other kids and hang out with these awesome cabin leaders. The cabin leaders make it so much fun with the campers. They pour into them, and they just have a good time, and they’re just happy to love them while they’re here.”
Skills sessions include archery, the rock climbing wall, crafts, canoeing, kendama, air soft guns and more. Their main building has been upgraded to include air conditioning and heating, making it more comfortable for kids in the summer time, and allowing them to host more events at their building during the winter.
They also have a bridge that is to be installed this month that will give them access to land that they have available on the other side of the Souris River.
“Hopefully we can do some new stuff in the future. We’re hoping to do some paintballing and stuff out there.”
The bridge is ready to go and just needs to be installed.
Estevan Bible Camp is affiliated with Canadian Sunday School Mission.
